We are nearing the final stretch of the college basketball season. With the Texas Longhorns (15-7) firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble every game matters.
Tuesday night’s home matchup against the No. 12 Iowa State Cyclones is of added importance. With a remaining schedule that sees Texas facing six ranked opponents, the team will want to get ranked wins out of the way.
The Longhorns face the Cyclones in Austin. It is one of two remaining home games against ranked opponents with the other against No. 23 Oklahoma. The other four ranked matchups involve road trips to face No. 4, Houston, No. 8 Kansas, No. 15 Texas Tech and No. 18 Baylor. Texas would be fortunate to win one of those four road battles.
For a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament, the Longhorns need to win five of their final nine games to finish at 9-9 in Big 12 play. An 8-10 conference record could potentially get the team into the Big Dance, but probably in a play-in game.
The game against Iowa State could determine Texas’ NCAA Tournament fate. Tuesday will reveal whether or not the team brings the urgency it brought against TCU.